Splintered - an Alice In Wonderland Re-telling

Thursday, January 30, 2014

This
stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land,
as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa
Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction
that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family
curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life
inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.When
her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns
that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The
real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis
Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests,
including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea
party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and
save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous
best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her
guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

I
love Splintered by A.G. Howard. It was a fun adventures, twists and turns and amazing
imagery. I have always loved the tale of Alice in Wonderland and I have
been obsessed with fairy tale re-tellings. This version of Alice was
interesting and I didn’t see the end coming, that always makes me enjoy a
book more. I hate when it is so predictable. I thought A.G. Howard did
an amazing job bringing the world to life, her writing and wit made the
story memorable. I always know it is a good book when my dreams are
filled with aspects of the book from reading right before bed. I really
want to go to Wonderland.

I really liked the grow of Alyssa’s
character throughout the book. There is such a social stigma of mental
illness, especially since all the women in her family have gone “crazy.”
I love the Alyssa found past the stigma and decided that she was going
to be strong instead of just thinking that the madness would seek her
out. But on the mental illness end, I thought it was really sweet how
Alyssa’s father stayed madly in love with his wife, Allison. He visited
her at the asylum constantly and never gave up hope that she would get
better.

It rocked that there was not a deep love triangle in this
book. Although there were two guys vying for her attention, I didn’t get
that normal annoyance with love triangles that I normally do. I
understand Alyssa’s attachment to Morpheus because of the comfort level
from childhood. There are just certain people and places that feel like
home and that attachment is deep.

Sometimes the imagery was so
complex or out of the ordinary I had a hard time envisioning the
characters she created. I wish that Disney would have waited for this
book to come out to do Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp. I can
totally see Tim Burton bringing this book to life in theaters and making
it wicked cool. The bug-like, almost dead characters would be right up
his alley.

The second book in the series is already out, Unhinged
and I am excited and interested to read where she goes with this story.
February might be a month of fairy tales for me with Cress, Unhinged,
and Cruel Beauty!

4 comments

Great review I'm glad you liked it. I wasn't such a fan of this one but I do agree about the imagery and I think it would make a really gorgeous movie! Especially in Tim Burton's hands his movies are all my favorites!

I reeeeally want to read this! I have it on reserve from the library, but apparently six hundred other people want to read it too, and I have to wait. *pouts in corner* I love all the names, though, and I SO could see this as a Tim Burton movie.

I'm really digging the fairytale re-imaginings lately too. Honestly, Alice in Wonderland is a hard sell for me, but the string of mental illnesses does intrigue me... and the fact that you gave it 5 stars, I'm putting it on my to read list :)

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